PHILADELPHIA — Michael Vick was on edge when the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach told him Chip Kelly wanted a word with him before practice Monday.

Vick has his career invested in this season. A 33-year-old quarterback with 56 career victories cannot afford to lose a competition for a starting job to a guy with one win and six starts. Not a day goes by when Vick isn’t reminded of the stakes.

“Any time coach calls you into his office, it’s always butterflies go through your stomach,” Vick said. “You never know what the conversation is going to be. But at the same time it’s always great to sit down with the head coach because you always tend to learn something whether it’s about life or football.”

The lesson this time was life and football.

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Kelly told Vick he’d won the starting quarterback job … and not just until he throws an interception or loses a fumble.

“He’s our starter for the season,” Kelly said. “It’s not a one-game trial.”

Vick thanked Kelly, told him “I won’t let you down” and then vowed to keep working at his job as if he was still in a competition with Nick Foles.

Mr. Runner-up Foles politely moved on. Foles’ completion percentage was only a few points from Vick, who connected on all but two attempts in the preseason. But Vick averaged 13.3 yards per attempt compared to 6.9 yards for Foles, who had two bad turnovers. Basically Vick and Foles performed the way the coaching staff expected despite Kelly’s assertions of not going into the competition with preconceptions.

“The competitor in me, you always want to be the one on the field playing,” Foles said. “At the same time, I love Mike. We’ve gone about it the right way. We’ve kept our great friendship and we’ve pushed each other. I’m proud of him. I’m going to do anything I can to help him become the best quarterback possible. I’m excited for him. Nothing changes in my preparation. I’m going to prepare the same way.”

If nothing changes, nothing changes, right? The Eagles practiced as if nothing changed. Long after practice was over several players didn’t know Kelly had made the decision.

Don’t kid yourself into believing the Eagles could care less who their starting quarterback is. The guys who played with Vick and Foles realized that deep down inside it was Vick’s job to lose. It was obvious in how easily such Eagles standouts as LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson reacted to Vick getting the job.

“Since Day 1, Mike Vick, I honestly thought he fit the offense the best,” Jackson said. “He’s able to go out there and still use his feet and he can still throw the ball 80 yards down the field. Me and McCoy always joke with him that he’s 33 years old, he’s getting old. But he does a great job going out there and using his legs. I think he’s still as fast as when he came in the league. He’s able to separate, make plays last longer. He lets his game talk for himself.”

And another thing, according to Jackson, is the edge Vick has over most quarterbacks in sheer arm strength.

“Vick throws the ball almost 80 yards,” Jackson said. “You never give up on plays because he’s able to extend plays longer. He’s able to make defenders miss. As a wide receiver, it just prolongs the play, so any given time you look up, he’s throwing the ball down the field because his feet, he can keep plays going.”

Even if Jackson and Vick share the same agent, those comments are telling. Jackson felt all along Vick would win the competition with Foles.

McCoy, on the other hand, felt the battle between the quarterbacks brought out the best in Vick. Or it at least made Vick more attentive.

At the same time McCoy couldn’t overlook the obvious. Vick, not Foles, makes the Eagles dynamic.

“The biggest thing with Michael Vick is when you see his name, you see him in the lineup and you prepare for him, for the running ability that he has,” McCoy said. “Michael can throw it, run it. I think this offense fits him so well. And we can be so deadly. There are times when we watch tape and he hands the ball off to me and then he’s going through with his fake and he’s taking two guys with him until they realize he doesn’t have the ball. When that happens it takes defenders out of the box. You don’t have to block them. So I mean Mike, just from him being here he helps this offense out with his ability to run the ball so well, and also to throw the ball.”

The way McCoy sees it, Jackson’s resurgence as a deep threat is a tribute to Vick as much as anything.

“I think DeSean has come back to the old DeSean that we all know making big plays up and down the field,” McCoy said. “Mike has a strong arm. And I think as a defense you’ve got to watch out for everything. The best thing about this offense that I like for myself is there’s so much space for Mike to make plays, for myself and DeSean. There’s so much space … to make plays in this offense.”

Kelly said the coaching staff evaluated “everything” before giving the job to Vick, who clearly performed better in the preseason games. In practices open to the media, Vick lately seemed to be getting more first-team snaps.

With the clock running out on the preseason, Kelly realized it was time to ratchet up the preparation Vick would need to start the season. The Eagles kick off Sept. 9th in Washington against the Redskins.

Kelly didn’t offer specific reasons for giving the ball to Vick.

“Mike is ahead right now,” Kelly said. “Nick made it very difficult, though. It wasn’t where one guy went north and the other guy went south. I think both of them upped their games. But at this point in time Mike is ahead and we want to move forward. And this is a one-quarterback operation. This isn’t going to be someone’s got to look over their shoulder or we’re going to alternate by series.”

Rookie Matt Barkley, believe it or not, also was evaluated for the starting job although he didn’t receive any work with the first team in the preseason. Barkley has a long way to go.

“The one thing I think we all learned from this group is we’ve got two guys … and maybe even three guys that can play in this league,” Kelly said. “So it was a healthy competition. Mike completed over 80 percent. I think Nick was at 79 percent. I think they both made each other better and I was really happy with how those guys handled the situation because it can get testy. It can at times be one guy competing against the other.”

In five preseason possessions Vick connected on 86.7 percent of his attempts for 199 yards, one touchdown, one interception and a 113.2 passer rating.

Foles completed 78.6 percent of his throws for 96 yards and a 65.5 passer rating.

Barkley, playing with subs, completed 52.8 percent of his passes for 175 yards (4.9 ypa.), one touchdown, no interceptions and a 75.6 rating.

Dennis Dixon, who played for Kelly at Oregon, connected on 62.5 percent of his attempts (3.8 ypa.) with no touchdowns or picks and a 70.0 rating.

G.J. Kinne was 2-for-2 for 60 yards and a 118.8 rating.

“I would think it was a thorough evaluation,” Kelly said. “We had 16 opportunities in the spring with voluntary minicamps, mandatory minicamps and 10 OTA’s. We had 20 practice opportunities here at the NovaCare plus two preseason games. So that gave us 38 opportunities along with walkthroughs, along with meetings. So we felt like we had a good amount of tape, a good amount of us seeing them on the field and seeing them in a lot of different situations. We wanted to put a guy in place if we could in enough time to get us to prepare for the season.”

All of that said, Kelly felt it prudent to have Foles ready just in case Vick gets hurt. Barkley, too.

“It’s a long season,” Jackson said. “So who knows how it’ll come out to be? I honestly think Vick will go out there and do a great job with a great backup in Nick Foles.”